Ewan and his co-star

Many of you have asked me about these photos (click here) of Ewan McGregor with Melanie Laurent, with whom he’s been working on The Beginner. They were holding hands, doing a walk/cuddle, out and about in Paris, not knowing they were being papped.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, this shouldn’t surprise you. References articles here and here and there are more, you’re welcome to browse through the archives.

This is a man who not infrequently travels the world on a bike with his friend, who goes away for long periods to work. Not all marriages are conventional and their marriage certainly isn’t. So it’s probably not fair to judge these photos, and these ones attached of them on set the other day, on the basis of what your expectations would be in your marriage. Ewan is not Keith Urban. He is not a famewhore trading on his private life. He hasn’t publicly declared that his relationship adheres to the code of the MiniVan Majority. So is it fair to apply to his relationship the standards of the MiniVan Majority? If two people have an understanding, and a commitment that is held together by more than sexual fidelity, bound by bonds that are more lasting than body chemistry, if that works for them, can we complain?

Gossip, as I have always said, is a buffet. You pick your side. Me I’m inclined to believe that Ewan and Eve enjoy each other together, and enjoy themselves apart. As for whether or not these pictures are disrespectful, well, he doesn’t call photographers, he isn’t Jessica Biel. Should he be more careful? We are careful when we have something to hide. On the assumption that he is not hiding anything, and that he and Eve are straight up about their arrangements, why move around like a fugitive when he hasn’t broken any rules?

This is not to say that those would be my choices. I consider it to be a highly evolved way of living, and I’m too petty and small to be able to do it. I do however know many people who manage it quite successfully. Their decisions, their preferences, their lives. When they don’t package it disingenuously, really, what’s the problem?

Until Eve comes out and calls him a cheating motherf-cker then, I wouldn’t write off Ewan quite yet. You have always loved him for NOT being like the others.